Chapter 5 #3
She realised she had said “we” and not “you.” Preserving Georgiana’s reputation required her to go alone to Scotland with Darcy.
But how could she leave another woman, a friend, a victim, to such a cruel fate?
She was perfectly safe with Darcy, after all, and he had been willing to be of use when it was her sister whose reputation and future happiness were at risk. She would do the same for him.
“Ma’am,” Sarah said tentatively, interrupting her rapidly jumping thoughts. “If Miss Lydia is home, you ought to return to your family.”
She could never forgive herself if she let Darcy remain here in hopelessness and did nothing to recover Georgiana. She was decided in an instant and ran down the stairs to ask the innkeeper about the coach routes.
When she came back five minutes later, Darcy was still in the same place. He was very pale, but she could not be sure if it was from distress or a deep-rooted rage against Wickham. Perhaps it was both.
“Mr Darcy, we are leaving! We will intercept Wickham and Georgiana before she marries him.”
He blinked at her. “They are a day ahead of me. They are not in a lumbering stagecoach after all but a private chaise.”
Just as she felt hopeless and lost this morning, so too must Darcy. He was not shrieking or on the verge of tears, but the same tumult of confusion and a desire to be doing something if only someone would tell him what to do must be running through his veins.
“But Wickham fears you stopping him, otherwise he never would have gone to the trouble of this ruse with Lydia.”
“He could not have assumed you would confide in me and that I would try to rescue Lydia.”
“Of course not.” Darcy was not seeing it clearly.
“But he does not want you to know he is with your sister, so he made everyone think he was with mine. You said Georgiana was absent for the day? He must have known when Lydia was discovered missing, you would never assume your sister had run away with him instead. You might not even have known Georgiana was gone until tonight or tomorrow. It was all a ploy, but he will still stick to side roads to throw you off, just in case. And as eager as he is for her fortune, he would not strain Georgiana with a breakneck pace. She will expect to rest and they will stop to sleep and eat.”
Darcy stood and took a few steps toward her. “But even if they do not take the Great North Road, how do I catch up to them?”
“We take the mail coach,” she cried.
“I beg your pardon?”
She wanted to shake him. Elizabeth hoped the man of action and decision who helped her this morning would eventually return, but the shock of knowing your sister was in the clutches of a villain must be considered.
“They told me in the yard that the mail coach leaves from the Bull and Mouth for Carlisle. Gretna Green is only a few miles across the border from there.”
Darcy’s eyes darted back and forth and she could tell he was thinking. “It would take two days, and the mail coach will not stop.”
He was about right. It would be an exhausting trip, sleeping in the coach and not stopping for meals.
“The Royal Mail leaves London at half past seven and arrives in Carlisle the second night at ten. Wickham and Georgiana will have more stops for rest and meals. Darcy!” she cried, gripping his arm to snap his attention back to her.
“We ride day and night in the mail coach and beat them to the border. We tell everyone Georgiana and I left Ramsgate to visit her home, and you escorted us on the trip. She won’t marry Wickham and her reputation will be safe. ”
He stared hard into her eyes, and at first, she was not sure he understood. But an alertness came back into his gaze. “What about your servant? We will be lucky to get two tickets for the mail at this late hour, let alone three.”
The mail coach only had four seats inside, and she did not want poor Sarah on the roof for days. The decision was made in a heartbeat. “Sarah, you must take a stagecoach back to Ramsgate. I will buy you a ticket.”
Her family’s maid shook her head. “I cannot leave you alone, ma’am.”
“I am safe with Mr Darcy, and he and his sister need my help. Tell my mother we met Miss Darcy in London and we are going to Pemberley. She will be delighted I have such a wealthy friend who might throw her daughters into the path of rich men. I will write to her when I can. Will you keep the secret, for Miss Darcy’s sake? ”
Sarah’s mouth hung open, but she huffed and agreed.
Darcy briskly nodded. “I will send my coach to Pemberley to continue the ruse. Meanwhile, we should pretend not to be acquainted in the mail coach. There will only be two other passengers, but they might make inappropriate assumptions if they think we are together.”
She smiled to see Darcy act more like himself. He still looked wan, but at least his words and actions were nearly back to normal. Elizabeth picked up her small bag and then thrust the other into his hands. “The Bull and Mouth is around the corner. We will have to run to make it.”
She did not wait for his assent, but as she ran down the stairs, she heard his swift footsteps behind her.